UNH picked to finish third in Hockey East; BC tops poll

Thursday

Sep 30, 2010 at 2:00 AM

BOSTON — Dick Umile had some room to breathe on Wednesday.

Mike Zhe

BOSTON — Dick Umile had some room to breathe on Wednesday.

Not that the longtime University of New Hampshire men's hockey coach was left alone entirely during a Hockey East preseason luncheon at the Legends Club at TD Garden. No, he did his share of media interviews and touched base with a bunch of friends from the coaching fraternity.

But it was the Wildcats' old rival, Boston College, which commanded the spotlight. The reigning league and Division I champion was a near-unanimous choice to finish first again, while UNH — the regular-season champ a year ago — was slotted for third.

"With how they ended and the players they have coming back, I think everyone expects them to be up top," said UNH winger Mike Sislo. "They're definitely a team we look forward to playing."

"No argument," said Umile, whose own club has held that team-to-beat label — with varying degrees of success — in years past.

BC received nine of a possible 10 first-place votes and 90 points to top the preseason poll. Maine, last year's Hockey East tournament runner-up, was chosen for the No. 2 spot with 80 points and garnered the other first-place vote.

UNH (76 points) was third in the poll, followed by Boston University (59), Northeastern (54), Vermont (53), Merrimack (48), UMass-Lowell (33), Massachusetts (26) and Providence (21)

The league's 27th season officially kicks off on Oct. 8. UNH begins with a pair of games that weekend at No. 3 Miami.

BC, which also won the Division 1 title in 2007-08, returns its top three scorers in Cam Atkinson (Greenwich, Conn.), who led Division 1 with 30 goals; Brian Gibbons of Braintree, Mass. (16-34-50); and captain Joe Whitney of Reading, Mass. (17-28-45). Plus top goalie John Muse and most of its defense, and boasts an incoming freshman class led by NHL first-round draft pick Kevin Hayes.

"Every year since I've been a freshman UNH has had a very strong team," said Muse. "It's a great program and you know they're always going to have a great offensive team."

This year, actually, it might be the defense doing some of the heavy lifting, at least early on, as the club breaks in largely untested goaltender Matt DiGirolamo. Offensive-minded junior Blake Kessel (10 goals, 28 assists for 38 points) leads a blueline group that also includes seasoned players Matt Campanale, Damon Kipp, Mike Beck and Brett Kostolansky.

"I feel like this is one of the years where we have a lot of defensive experience," said Campanale, a senior. "We should be able to step up and be more of a backbone to the team than we have in the last couple of years."

Up front, the departure of Bobby Butler after his stellar (29-24-53) senior season is regarded as one of the league's biggest losses. Crafty center Peter LeBlanc is gone, too, but the 'Cats have seemingly always been able to promote from within.

"Every year, we've always been fortunate to have a goal-scorer," said Umile. "Last year it was Bobby Butler. This year we have Mike Sislo, who's kind of a Bobby Butler-like player. ...; Offensively, I think we're going to be fine and that's not even counting the younger players."

Umile, as he did at the end of last season, stressed that DiGirolamo, a junior who's seen action in eight games spelling Brian Foster the last two seasons, is the No. 1 goalie. The other backstops are junior Tyler Scott, who hasn't seen a minute of action yet; and freshman Jeff Wyer, a standout in juniors and in the Massachusetts high school ranks before that.

"It's going to be Matt's job and he's going to be ready for it" said Umile. "Jeff — we think he's a very good player, but he'll need some time."

The last two seasons for the Wildcats have been remarkable similar. Consider:

In 2008-09, they went 20-13-5, got upset in the league playoffs on home ice and lost to BU — nobly — in the NCAA regional finals; In 2009-10, they went 18-14-7, got upset in the league playoffs on home ice and lost to RIT — badly — in the NCAA regional finals.

Two similar years. Two similar offseasons to fuel the next run.

"They felt pretty similar but I feel we have more to prove this year after our loss to RIT," said Campanale. "That was kind of frustrating to us and we want to prove to everyone that we're better than that."

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